kellzfresh

Damn £100 million for an eighteen year old,

The guy is a very energetic, intense striker, reminds me of tevez. Doesnt loose his ball easily. Fights for every ball in the air. But €100 million is expensive as hell. Mbappe = Plays like Henry. €50-60mil Andrea Bellotti = Plays like Tevez but is also a monster in the air. €100mil Who to choose???

Tottenham and Chelsea are the best two teams in the league. They have the better defenders, we have the better attack. But with Alli scoring 13 goals in his last 15, son scoring freely and Costa more interested in quarrels instead of goals, I'm beginning to think tottenham have the better attack. Only Hazard is tipping the attack scale in our favor

I thought he did well in the wingback position. Got an assist and looks a decent crosser

Costa was our best player in the first half of the season. But now, he's absolute dogshite. Sorry There was a time in the first half when we had a dangerous counter, hazard was one on one with the centerback and instead of Costa to run forward and support play, he pulls the defender down off the ball and it became a mancity freekick. I wished I could put my hands through the TV that moment and give him a slap. He no longer cares about scoring. He doesn't have the hunger of a striker, it's as if he's turned on by having physical contact with defenders instead of avoiding them and trying to score. What in the world is wrong with him? Our gameplay heavily depends on the holdup play and runs of the striker and Costa has been shite in holding up any sort of ball. In a big match like this, when the opponent is giving our midfield pressure, he's supposed to be the outball, but he doesn't win any headers, Pedro and hazard are even better than him in winning air balls. All costa wants is to be fouled so that he can complain to the referee Against Palace, he didn’t make a single run in the box to the near post to get to one of the numerous dangerous crosses and ended up costing us the game. We need another striker to replace him when he gets on his poor second half of the season form yet again next season.

Poor game, especially in the first half. He is the major reason why we are not winning games comfortably again by giving the opponent back the ball almost all the time

A lot of people don't know why we are okay with Bakayoko. Look at us this season, since we changed to a 3-4-3, we have beaten the smaller teams in the league with more ease than anyone else. We don't have any problem of creativity against smaller teams. But against the big teams, we were defensively opened up a lot against mancity, we were bullied by Tottenham’s pressing in two games against them especially in the first half. Pressing is our weakness. That is the problem we need to solve next season, because it will come in every game in the Champions League. We need more players in our back seven in the 3-4-3 to be able to cope with pressing. To be able to hold the ball under pressure, and dribble out and get the ball straight to hazard. Passing doesn't work as effectively as dribbling against high pressing, and fabregas being poor under pressure is proof of my point. I am not saying passing isn't important, I'm just saying when being pressed, the ability to dribble out of the jam is more important. The best of both worlds would have been Verratti, but it's unrealistic. What we need is to remove 2-3 players who are weak against pressing and too one footed (Matic, Alonso) for guys who can dribble past players (nainggolan/Bakayoko Alex.sandro/Mendy) and we'll start beating tottenhams/Liverpool/manutd press more often. People who watched essien know how crucial this type of midfielders are in the team.

The reason we struggled against Spurs was because of their intense pressing. We couldn't handle it. And when we press Spurs back, they have dembele, wayanma, rose who are strong on the ball and could dribble out of pressure. While we have only Hazard who can win fouls. If we get Bakayoko, it could help but our wingbacks still need to be able to compete with the pace, power and ability to hold the ball under pressure of the Spurs own wingbacks. If we had a striker that is good in the air, we could easily hit a long ball straight to him, but we don't have this either. This bad combination throughout our team has made pressing from big teams our biggest weakness. That's why it's so easy to pin us back for very long periods in our half, when all it takes is to chase Cahill, Alonso, Matic, kante, costa, Pedro, and they all kick the ball in the air or lose possession easily.

Our website is throwing back digs at Manchester United and Mourinho since Conte won't respond to him.

From your description, he is like dembele for Spurs. That will be good, someone who can hold his ball under pressure, two footed, and most importantly can dribble past opponents through the middle of the pitch and carry the ball forward to help the attack. (Essien used to do this for us,) You only have to watch our match against Tottenham to know how important these type of midfielders are.

Its sad, but I'm beginning to think he's going. He already attempted to leave in the summer but we didn't let him now China has the money, something fishy happened in january with the China rumors, it seems inevitable. I hope we get mbappe to replace him. But I'll not be against getting lukaku back. He already loves the club, maybe his passion will improve his performance.

The last match against Stoke strengthened the case for mbappe imo. He's incredible. He could be better than costa in a short while. He makes runs off the ball like costa, hes by far a better dribbler than costa, Hes by far better in linkups as Hazard will receive back most of the numerous passes he lays to costa when he runs for the return pass. He has better control of the ball under pressure and along with hazard will provide another crucial player in attack that is good under pressure. He's very good in the air and can contest with defenders for air balls where costa is a disaster in. Azpilicueta can play a high ball from defence into mbappe when pressed and we still maintain possession. And we could actually score more headers. Costa is useless in this aspect. He can replace costa when he goes on his second half of the season poor form. And most importantly, mbappe is a goalscoring machine. 13 goals in his last 12 games is no joke.

Manchester United are enjoying a long unbeaten run in the league stretching back to October. It has lifted them all the way from 6th to 7th.

Even though we ground out that win, I think we played well overall today. We hit the post twice, grant made 4 very good saves, we scored twice and Stoke had one shot on target all game from a soft penalty. All this without hazard and Costa having a mare in the first half, it was a good, well fought performance.

What has happened to Costa ??? He's been so poor, I don't even know if he's necessary in this match anymore or we should just bring on fabregas

Damn, I overrated this arsenal side. Without carzola in midfield, they’re sh*t

I just found this on Twitter I hope this isn't true. Those ManUnited thugs

One of the most annoying moments for me. Our midfield would have been set for years

This is true. We may not need a ball playing midfielder if we have a dynamic midfield who can dribble past opponents and carry the ball into attack like essien used to do for us. In an ideal world, I'd want Verratti/modric who can pass, and can dribble away when he is targeted or under pressure but these types of players are difficult to get. So a ball carrier like dembele/nainggolan would be perfect and improve us drastically. At least teams like tottenham wouldn't bully us in midfield like they did before.

Sorry, the last paragraph was a statement I made. I don't know how that got mixed up in the quote. I was saying that we criticize Conte sometimes but we can clearly see the difference in attacking between our team now than under Mourinho. The performances against rostov both home and away were regular occurrences. Exactly, he always brings on fellaini or mikel to close out games instead of going for the next goal. It has cost them points against Everton, Arsenal, Stoke and almost conceded in the last minute yesterday. He still hasn't changed this cautious approach. And eventually many manutd fans will be frustrated by this.

I watched the match against rostov and it was a sour performance. I don't know how long ManUnited fans can keep up with this. They are used to attacking football under Ferguson (chanting "attack, attack, attack" during match days) and didn't like LVG because of the poor quality football and lack of goals. Statements like this are becoming normal on redcafe: We criticize Conte here sometimes but watching ManUnited reminds me of how poor we could be in the past sometimes. Especially running out of ideas near the box

https://mobile.twitter.com/ChelseaAlerts/status/841513991742619648/video/1 https://mobile.twitter.com/ChelseaAlerts/status/841513991742619648/video/1

I've watched about 10 Monaco matches and Mbappe is the one I want the most. He makes runs off the ball like costa, is energetic, but still wins balls in the air, takes shots from outside the box, has fantastic ball control under pressure, has good link up play, 11 goals in his last 11 games, so he's no slouch in finishing. And most importantly, his dribbling style reminds me of Thierry Henry. He's the guy we need from Monaco. He'll be one of the best strikers of his generation, Anyone can bookmark me on this.

I want 3 players. Mbappe (PRIORITY!! incredible talent, only 18, makes runs off the ball like costa and has Thierry Henry esque ballcontrol) Mendy> Alonso (bcos of speed and better fantastic crosses) Fabinho >>>Matic in attack (he can provide Matic tackling and better passing, better attacking movement, better at holding the ball under pressure)

Thank goodness we've already played Leicester. They're definitely back to last season form. Mancity, Arsenal and tottenham haven't played them yet, this is no longer an easy 3 points anymore